Strindberg's Star by Jan Wallentin & Rachel Willson-Broyles

A multilayered international thrill ride at breakneck pace, reminiscent of The Rule of Four

The Arctic, 1897: Nils Strindberg crashes his hydrogen balloon during the mysterious Andrée Expedition to the North Pole.Germany, 1942: Gruesome and inexplicable experiments are performed on concentration camp prisoners.Sweden, present-day: Cave diver Erik Hall finds a dead body wearing an ancient ankh, buried deep in an abandoned mine. Religious symbol expert Don Titelman seeks out Erik to study the ankh—but finds Erik dead. Don is the prime suspect, and soon he’s being chased across Europe to escape a secret society that will do anything to get their hands on the ankh. . . .

In this international bestseller, each of these fascinating strands weaves together to create a mind-blowing cross-genre thriller that includes arctic explorers, a secret railroad network, Norse mythology, Nazis, and ancient symbols—and a shocking secret that’s been hidden for centuries.

JAN WALLENTIN is a journalist. He is forty-one years old and has three children. He lives in Stockholm and is currently working on his next book. This is his first novel.RACHEL WILLSON-BROYLES has translated Invasion and Montecore, both by Jonas Hassan Khemiri. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Read Me Deadly

Reviewed by Georgette Spelvin
on
Jun 18 2012

The book's main problem is its lack of appealing fictional characters. Don, the protagonist, is only 43 years old; yet, he's a grey-faced physical and psychological wreck...It's a bit hard to root for Don

Violin in a Void

May 08 2012

Strindberg’s Star however, is both dull and complicated, making it hard to pay attention long enough to scrabble together the information for a decent plot summary, nevermind a thorough articulation of my feelings about the book.